


The Complete Guide to Singularity & Blue Skye Rising

by Marc_Quill



Category: Original Work
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2018-10-01 15:35:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10193138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marc_Quill/pseuds/Marc_Quill
Summary: Learn more about the heroes and the world they inhabit in this concise guide to the eight-part miniseries thriller "Singularity". Featuring bios on Skye Emery, Finn Finwick, and Ava Lorenz, as well as a comprehensive timeline of events, this guide is a must-read for fans of the exciting miniseries that's got everyone talking.





	1. Skye Emery

**Basic Information**

Full Name: Skye Emery  
Other Names: Subject SK-591 (Project Singularity serial number)  
Date of Birth: November 28th, 1995 (date of artificial creation)  
Place of Birth: SDI Base Alpha (CLASSIFIED LOCATION)  
Nationality: Canadian

First Appearance: Singularity #1 _[“Skye”](https://writequillwrite.wordpress.com/2016/03/06/singularity-s1e1-skye/) _ (March 2016)

**Physical Characteristics**

Hair Color: Dark purple with pink highlights (dyed); light red (natural)  
Eye Color: Green  
Height: 6’1  
Weight: 225 lbs

**Known Superpowers  
**

_Enhanced Endurance_   _and Strength_ – Unknown experiments upon Skye’s creation have augmented her skin and muscle tissue to near-superhuman levels. This has made her essentially invulnerable to almost all forms of physical pain. These experiments have also granted Skye peak-human strength that allows her to lift objects three times her weight.

 _Enhanced Reflexes_ – It is presumed that the same experiments that gave Skye her superhuman invulnerability and strength also enhanced her reflexes, speed, and agility to peak-Olympian levels.

 _Advanced Combat Knowledge –_ Since Skye was originally meant to serve as the first of an army of super-soldiers for SDI, she was ingrained with decades of combat skills, knowledge of over one-hundred fighting styles and disciplines, as well as tactical prowess.

 _Healing Factor_ – Skye is able to internally heal any injuries sustained, no matter how severe they may be. Her blood can apparently do the same for others if a sample of it is injected in their bloodstream.

**Miscellanea**

Known allies: Finch “Finn” Finwick (confidant), Leo Stein (incredibly loose acquaintance; Finn’s best friend), Zaida Khan (friend from long ago; possible girlfriend?)

Relatives: Dr. Elizabeth Emery (surrogate mother, status unknown), Ava Lorenz (adopted sister)

—

**Biography**

December 6th, 1995: **Dr. Elizabeth Emery** , one of the heads overseeing SDI Genomics’ Project Singularity — a program originally designed to breed “perfect” humans to cure diseases — began to feel uneasy with her efforts being used for military applications rather than the program’s original intent of breeding artificial humans as a way to help find cures for life-threatening diseases. She grew fond of the only infant created by the program – a subject designated as “SK-591” – ultimately taking the infant with her on this evening after learning the true horrors that SDI had planned for the infant and future Project Singularity subjects.

Emery renamed the artificially-created infant **“Skye”** , seeing her as the daughter she wished to have but couldn’t due to her obligations to SDI. The doctor soon realized that in SDI’s hands, the infant would grow up and be turned into a weapon, so Emery did her best to nurture the young Skye with compassion and kindness to prevent such a fate from befalling her surrogate daughter. In 2001, Emery mysteriously disappeared, leaving the now-six-year-old Skye to fend for herself through early childhood and her teenage years. Skye’s perpetually-jumbled memories of the past (as a result of incomplete “conditioning” upon her birth) and a fear of her true programming kicking in at any moment further complicated matters, making the prospect of having to survive alone in a world she barely knew a daunting task. As a result, Skye often found herself drifting through different locales during these formative years, never staying in one place for more than a few days and never having any clear memories of her past whereabouts.

Despite this nomadic lifestyle, the nature of Skye’s superhuman abilities helped leave an indelible mark on wherever she ended up, as she found herself involved in foiling crimes, saving lives, and even inexplicable fights in her many years of traversing across Ontario.

In January 2016, Skye eventually found herself on the streets of Toronto, Ontario, being pursued by **Samuel Brandt** , a mercenary working for SDI’s Repossession Task Force. Brandt was tasked with apprehending Skye by a man only known as The Chief for an unknown purpose. Thanks to her superhuman invulnerability, Skye survived a head-on collision with a truck before escaping Brandt’s operatives (all of whom were impersonating Toronto Police officers).

After eluding her pursuers successfully, she encountered a young man being assaulted by three homophobic thugs for simply defending a friend of his. Skye jumped into action, brutally beating down the thugs in defense of the young man, named **Finch Finwick** , known to his friends as “Finn”. She later accompanied Finn and **Leo Stein** (the friend being protected) back to the former’s apartment at a local homeless shelter for at-risk youth, staying there for the evening.

Skye later rescued Torontonians trapped in burning vehicles at Yonge-Dundas Square following a multi-vehicle accident on the following day. A short time after, she and Finn are confronted by Brandt and his associates, representatives of a group that claims to have plans for Skye. While their enhanced weapons manage to harm her, Skye was still able to fend them off with Finn’s help. She ultimately decided to let Finn stay on as an ally in her ongoing search for the truth behind her past and the connection it has to Agent Brandt’s employers.

After having another nightmare of being experimented on by strange entities, Skye is thrust into a bizarre situation at SafeHaven involving **Kimmy Anderson** , one of Finn’s neighbors. A card found at the scene of the suspected crime would lead Skye (and Finn, who accompanied her) to the Daily Harvest Food Bank, where Skye would find herself face-to-face with a unknown male imbued with similar superhuman abilities to her own.

Later that evening, Skye infiltrated the head office of Psi MediLabs, where she would once again encounter the male – revealed to be **Isaac Ellerton** , Kimmy’s fiance – in a standoff, ultimately getting Ellerton to trust her. Skye once again fought against Agent Brandt, who sought Ellerton for an unknown reason, eventually escaping Psi MediLabs with Finn and a badly-wounded Ellerton in tow. At Toronto General Health Centre, Skye told Finn that she had some idea of how her superhuman abilities, the arrowhead from her visions, Agent Brandt, Psi MediLabs, and the events that led to Isaac Ellerton’s empowerment were all connected to something called “Singularity”, vowing to put an end to it for good.

A day later, Skye suffered from a memory “attack” after she and Finn visited Isaac at the Toronto General Health Centre to get more answers about the doctor that gave him his enhancement serum.  Luckily, Finn is able to help Skye remember the events of the past few days. Their visit would lead the two on the trail of a **Dr. Douglas Dover** , a medical researcher being sought by armed soldiers. Skye later finds out the soldiers work for SDI Medical Research, who kidnapped Dover under the direction of **Professor Roland Keisler** , the head of Project: Unity, a genetic enhancement project that targeted the homeless on Toronto’s streets to give them superpowers.

Skye (under the guise of Health Canada inspector Ramona Stevens) visited SDI Medical Research in an attempt to rescue Dover. She’d end up facing Patient A-001, a super-soldier who had energy manipulation powers and the ability to control the subjects of Project: Unity to command them to do his bidding. With the help of **Ava Lorenz** , a teenage girl with light powers, Skye was able to shut down Keisler’s experiments.

A few days later, a day out with Ava and Finn at Kensington Market turned ugly when assassins targeted Skye and her friends. Skye was able to defeat the assassins with Finn and Ava’s help, but a dark secret soon manifested itself when she confronted **Col. Francis Auerbach** , one of the assassins under SDI’s employ.

Falling under a mysterious trance, Skye lost control of herself and brutally beat Auerbach to near-death without a hint of remorse. Skye also came dangerously close to murdering Finn in this berserker state, but Ava was able to restore Skye with her light powers. This incident left Skye emotionally shaken and fearful of what she was capable of while under whatever mind control she was in.

In appreciation for what Ava has done for her, Skye gave the homeless teen a photo of a happier time together before leaving with Finn. Ava subsequently gifted a rabbit necklace to Skye as a way to help her remember if her memory problems ever came up again.

Later, Skye and Finn researched SDI’s dealings, whereupon Finn found out about Skye’s other exploits in various towns. All of these incidents naturally involved Skye using her powers to save lives or fighting off hostile threats, and all of which did not ring any bell for her. This research trip also revealed something dubbed “Project Singularity”, a long-scrapped program backed by SDI that involved breeding superhumans free of disease in order to cure the HIV virus.

Before more answers could be gathered, Toronto Police (who believed Skye to be a wanted fugitive) and SDI forces led by Brandt cornered Skye and Finn at Robarts Library, which ended with Finn in critical condition after he was hit with a few bullets to his back while escaping.

In order to save Finn’s life, Skye injected her friend with a small sample of her own blood, believing that her body’s internal healing abilities could help heal Finn by way of blood transfusion. This desperate measure appeared to work as intended when Finn slowly recovered from his life-threatening injuries.

Skye would end up leaving Finn behind at SafeHaven so that she could stop SDI’s conspiracy alone and to protect her new friend from further harm. She visited Dr. Dover once again to get some answers, but the doctor was assassinated by Stone, an agent working for SDI. Skye chased Stone across several rooftops, eliminating the assassin, but not before recovering a USB file containing important data pertaining to SDI and Project Singularity.

With this intel in her possession, Skye attempted to draw out SDI at Toronto’s Port Lands, where she would be confronted by **Gerald Selfridge** and his legion of Genetic Extractors. In the resulting fight, Skye was exposed to a suppressing cloud that slowly neutralized her superhuman abilities. This left her at the mercy of Mr. Selfridge, who activated hidden programming that apparently wiped Skye’s memories completely.

At Base Alpha, Selfridge told Skye — who was reprogrammed to believe that she was “Subject SK-591” — of her new role as the “face” of the reborn Project Singularity, with more super-soldiers to be created from her blood. He also mentioned how his people framed Finn for Isaac Ellerton’s murder and how they planned on potentially forcing Skye to kill Finn as a test of her loyalty.

Through sheer willpower, Skye broke free of the Singularity programming to restore her mind and memories back to normal. Unfortunately, she was too weak to fight back against the Genetic Extractors, who easily defeated Skye once again. Selfridge ordered for the young superhuman to be taken to Base Alpha’s Detention Cells so that she could be prepared for final blood extraction.

With the help of **Dr. Ilsa Antrovich** , a SDI scientist who grew weary of Selfridge’s experiments, Skye learned of her true origins as an artificially-made baby and the only true “success” of Project Singularity back in 1995. She also discovered Dr. Emery’s role in both liberating her from SDI and nurturing her over the years (as well as giving Skye her very name) until she disappeared in 2001.

Skye was subsequently exposed to a prototype serum developed by SDI, which not only restored her powers, but greatly increased them beyond their normal levels.

At some point prior to Finn and Ava’s arrival at Base Alpha, Skye attacked and subsequently impersonated a SDI guard, revealing herself to her friends after they were captured for attempting to rescue her. She explains Selfridge’s plans for her blood and introduces the two to Dr. Antrovich. The mission to stop Project Singularity took a near-tragic turn when Selfridge brought in a gigantic creature known only as “Omega” to deal with Skye and her friends. While Omega was successfully taken down, Skye suffered a fatal chest wound from the giant’s blade that apparently left her dead.

In reality, though, Skye was not killed by Omega’s blade, her body simply put the artificial superhuman into a comatose state while it healed the massive laceration she sustained. In this state, Skye encountered a spectral version of Dr. Elizabeth Emery based on her memories of her creator from the past, who encouraged Skye to look within herself to find her true strength. Upon doing so, Skye fully recovered from her injuries, in time to save Finn and Ava from the Genetic Extractors.

The happy reunion was short-lived, as the three had to deal with a newly-powered Selfridge, who now wore an armoured suit that linked him with the operational systems of Base Alpha. Skye later teamed up with Finn and Ava to defeat Selfridge and shut down his attempts at bringing Project Singularity back. Before Base Alpha’s destruction, Skye was able to rescue Dr. Antrovich to help her escape SDI’s crumbling base of operations.

Three months later, Skye moved in at SafeHaven, occupying Finn’s old apartment along with Ava. While she was uncertain that the conspiracy was taken down for good, Skye — who now adopted Dr. Emery’s surname as her own — expressed happiness for where she was in life for the first time in a while, even getting Ava a gift for the teenager’s fifteenth birthday as a show of appreciation for everything she’s done for her.

Following SDI’s defeat, Skye — further motivated by learning of her mother’s efforts in raising her as a baby — sought to do right by Dr. Emery through taking a greater role in being a “superhero” for the city of Toronto. This has included rescuing people from all sorts of calamity, fighting would-be criminals, and generally trying her best to keep Toronto safe.

Skye learned of a white supremacist terror group known as the Canadian Freedom Militia, who had been utilizing an imposter of her as part of a smear campaign designed to destroy her credibility. With help from Finn, Ava, and Leo, Skye was able to expose the Militia’s deadly plot, even managing to defeat the terror group’s impersonator — who was revealed to be disgraced Toronto Police constable **Renata Brooks** — in a public standoff.

(Prior to these events, Finn assisted Skye with creating a Twitter account so that she could communicate with Torontonians.)

During the aforementioned adventure, Skye met up with **Zaida Khan** , a young woman from Peterborough that she knew many years ago due to a brief period where she stayed at her family’s house. Upon reconnecting with Zaida, Skye realized she had certain romantic feelings for the young university student. A few days later, Skye privately conferred with Finn to reveal to her friend that she was a lesbian. She’d go on a coffee date with Zaida later in the day to affirm her feelings for the twenty-one year-old.

A month later, Skye began to realize that something was affecting her superhuman abilities negatively after an encounter with two armed mercenaries nearly ended in tragedy for her. This apparently included Skye losing her super-strength and endurance for brief periods before being restored to their normal levels. Skye promised Ava that she would find the root of the problem, but insisted that Finn shouldn’t know about it, mainly due to the fact that he was busy preparing for his wedding with Stephen O’Day. In the meantime, Leo provided not only a new superhero “costume” for Skye (in actuality, a heavily-stylized blue-and-white motorcycle jacket), but also his expertise in order to assist with discovering a potential terrorist plot targeting the unveiling of a new cross-border clean energy initiative.

—

**Quill’s Notes  
**

By now, you’ve hopefully followed this story from start to finish, which means we can now discuss the inspirations for Skye’s creation in greater detail than when I first wrote this.

And to confirm before anyone asks, yes, her name was inspired by the character from _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._ of the same name – who, in fairness, now goes by the name “Daisy Johnson” in the series. Other than that, there aren’t really any similarities between the two (the mystery past might be construed as a possible connection, but as we’ve discovered, the _Singularity_ Skye’s mysterious past is not even close to being similar to the _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._ Skye).

As you learned in Issue 7, Dr. Elizabeth Emery named baby Subject SK-591 “Skye” due to being inspired by the endless possibilities that her surrogate daughter would have in her future. The idea behind this story element being introduced was to give a justifiable reason for why this novel’s main character has such a mysterious-sounding name in the first place. Further to that, as you see at the head of this bio, it’s led to Skye fully taking up the Emery name for herself, which is why she’s known as “Skye Emery” in _Blue Skye Rising_ , as you’ll see.

Ironically, the very origins of Skye didn’t come from a story outline or anything fancy, but from _WWE 2K16_ , of all things. She began life there as “Ramona Skye”, a created wrestler made as part of a burgeoning league of custom wrestlers either made by me, or downloaded through the game’s online section. I don’t know how exactly the then-Ramona Skye made the transition from “created wrestler” to “main protagonist of new story”, but once the opportunity came up, I couldn’t resist. That’s when the development of _Singularity_ and my new main protagonist truly kicked into high gear, so to speak.

Over the course of development, a few aspects of Skye’s character changed: she lost the “Ramona” part of her name, for instance; she also gained some superpowers and a amnesia backstory tied to a larger conspiracy. A lot of the subsequent elements like Finn, a gay friend of Skye’s (I’ll discuss the development of that character in his bio), and the world around her were added later on as everything began to take shape. She really began to resonate and stick with me in my mind. It was at this point where Skye no longer was just a basic created wrestler in a video game. She became a fully-realized character inhabiting her own world.

As you’ve read during the entire first season, a good chunk of Skye’s character arc revolves around her need to find the truth about her past and to solve the puzzle that has come with it. We’ve all had a point in our life where we grappled with an identity crisis. While Skye’s story is heavily rooted in a world of superpowers and conspiracies, a search for reclaiming her own identity is what lies at the heart of her arc. Despite the crap that the world throws at her and the mental suffering she has to endure, Skye is someone who won’t stop or give up until she finds the answers she’s looking for.

Part of that arc helps informs Skye’s interactions with both Ava Lorenz and Finn, helping her grow emotionally. While she was initially a bit distant and hesitant to accept Finn’s help, you start to see that his presence has a profound effect on how Skye handles herself with other people. We see her become a bit more friendly towards others, willing to open up to them more often than not. She even becomes very supportive for her friends, as seen in her understated joy for Finn’s planned proposal to Stephen O’Day, even going as far as setting up the wedding for the two. In all honesty, writing said emotional beats were a far more fulfilling experience in writing the eight episodes of the first season.

While I can’t divulge too many details on where Skye will be in terms of _Blue Skye Rising,_ I can at least say that the end of _Singularity_ will give you an idea of what’s changed for her as we head into this new season. As you read in “Undaunted”, Skye now lives in Finn’s old SafeHaven apartment with Ava, unofficially now becoming her guardian. This is intended to parallel how Dr. Emery took care of Skye for many years before mysteriously vanishing in 2001. So, in a sense, Skye has become (or well on her way of becoming) what Dr. Emery was for her as a child in how she’s decided to become Ava’s mentor and guardian. We’ll see that shape how Skye interacts with Ava as she tries her best to both take care of her and guide her towards a brighter path.


	2. Finch "Finn" Finwick

**Basic Information**

Name: Finch “Finn” Finwick  
Date of Birth: March 25th, 1994  
Place of Birth: Newmarket, Ontario

**Physical Characteristics**

Hair Color: Brown  
Eye Color: Brown  
Height: 5”11  
Weight: 192 lbs  
Race: Afro-Canadian

**Miscellanea**

Known accomplices: Skye (best friend, ally), Ava Lorenz (best friend, ally) Leo Stein (best friend since high school), Stephen O’Day (boyfriend, hockey player with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies), Miss Meredith Meads (landlord of SafeHaven Homeless Shelter), Kimmy Anderson (neighbor), Isaac Ellerton (enhanced human, Kimmy’s fiance)

Relatives: Jonathan Finwick (father, deceased), Erin Finwick (mother, deceased), Martin Ellis (former foster parent), Deirdre Ellis (former foster parent)

—

**Biography**

Finch Finwick grew up in Newmarket as a relatively quiet young man often disconnected from the world around him. Losing his parents, Jonathan and Erin Finwick, to a fatal car crash caused by a drunk driver didn’t help matters for him. This would lead him to being mostly isolated for most of his years in school. At the age of four, Finch was left in the care of foster parents Martin and Deirdre Ellis, who essentially left him to his own devices for most of his youth.

In high school, Finn would meet Stephen O’Day, a student he had a taken quite a liking to for some time now. It was at this point of his life where he realized that he found romantic affections for people of the same gender.

After graduating from high school in 2012, hostilities between Finn and his foster parents came to a head, as said foster parents’ continued dislike over their son’s lifestyle choices just became too much for him to bear. He would leave their house in defiance, and with help from Leo and Stephen, found a place to stay at the SafeHaven Homeless Shelter for at-risk youths. He has been a resident there ever since.

Finn first encountered the woman only known to him as “Skye” on a cold January night in 2016, after an attempt to rescue Leo from a gang of homophobes almost ended fatally. He would be grateful for Skye’s heroics and even invited her to stay over at his apartment at SafeHaven. Despite protestations from Skye in regards of any affiliations, Finn was more than happy to have her in his life at that time.

Finn later returned the favor for Skye saving his (and subsequently, Leo’s) life by helping her fight off SDI Repossession Task Force leader Samuel Brandt and his strike unit. Ultimately, after some mild nagging, Skye relented and agreed to let Finn join in on her search for the mysteries that surrounded her past.

A day after meeting Skye, Finn would find himself caught in a bizarre situation when the apartment of fellow SafeHaven neighbour Kimmy Anderson was found desecrated by an unknown assailant. Finn accompanied Skye to the Daily Harvest Food Bank to help distract Toronto Police officers in order to allow Skye to enter the facility without detection. He would later join her in infiltrating Psi MediLabs’ headquarters, subsequently running into Isaac Ellerton, Kimmy’s boyfriend, who had been granted superhuman abilities due to unknown experiments conducted on him to cure a respiratory illness. The mission to extract Ellerton from the building didn’t go as planned when Brandt and the facility’s security detail attempted to kill Skye, Finn, and Ellerton. However, the trio were able to fend them off before barely escaping the Psi MediLabs building with their lives.

When meeting Ellerton at the Toronto General Health Centre with Skye in order to get information about the doctor who met with Isaac, Finn experienced Skye’s memory problems first-hand. He ultimately is able to help Skye remember the events of recent days successfully. Finn later creates a fake disguise for Skye to help her navigate to a crime scene in Kensington Market that reportedly involved a missing homeless person. This somehow led into a rescue mission to save Dr. Douglas Dover, a medical researcher sought by SDI Medical Research for its Project: Unity rehabilitation program headed by Professor Roland Keisler. With the help of Ava Lorenz, a young girl with light control powers, Finn and Skye were able to shut down Project: Unity.

A few days later, Finn helped Skye fend off another memory lapse, this time giving his friend a notebook he had kept for the past week or so. This notebook contained pertinent information on Finn’s experiences with Skye and the conspiracy that loomed over them.

On that same day, a visit to Kensington Market to meet up with Ava became a full-fledged crisis when SDI-hired assassins targeted Finn and Skye at a coffee shop. The three are able to fight back against the assassins, though the worst of it was still to come.

Finn was horrified when he and Ava saw Skye uncharacteristically pummeling Colonel Francis Auerbach, one of the assassins that remained. Soon, Finn found himself assaulted by the now-bloodthirsty Skye, nearly being killed by her if not for Ava saving him with her light powers.

Realizing that Skye was not at fault for her outburst, Finn reiterated his resolve to help Skye expose the Singularity conspiracy, opting to visit the University of Toronto’s Robarts Library to do some research. There, he learned not only of what the conspiracy may have started off as, but also of Skye’s heroics prior to winding up in Toronto (the details of which were still largely unknown for Skye).

This research trip was abruptly interrupted when Toronto Police and SDI special forces personnel (who were ordered by Mr. Gerald Selfridge to assist police in arresting Skye for her “crimes”) raided the library. This confrontation ended badly for Finn, who appeared to have suffered critical injuries after being shot in the back a few times while he and Skye tried to escape.

After being taken back to SafeHaven instead of a regular hospital, Finn was barely alive. In a last ditch attempt, Skye injected Finn with a bit of her blood, hoping that her body’s internal healing abilities could be passed on to Finn. This was enough to save Finn from certain death.

A day later, Skye left Finn to recover while she set out to stop SDI alone. In the interim, Finn played video games with Leo Stein while he recovered from his injuries, later discovering Isaac Ellerton’s death during an online play session. Toronto Police, believing Finn to be responsible for Isaac’s murder, arrested him late in the evening and took him into custody.

Fortunately, Ava Lorenz — along with Major Crimes Task Force commander Derick Eddison — was able to find evidence that revealed Samuel Brandt as the actual perpetrator behind murdering Isaac. As a result, Finn was cleared of all charges, later seeking to find SDI’s elusive Base Alpha to rescue Skye from the evil organization.

Joined by Ava, Finn reunited with Skye once more, who told her two friends that they needed to stop SDI’s plans to resurrect Project Singularity once and for all. Finn teamed up with Ava and Skye to fend off SDI guards, as well as Gerald Selfridge’s Genetic Extractors before being faced with the SDI CEO himself — who now wore an advanced suit of armor that linked him to the operational systems of Base Alpha.

In order to stop this newly-empowered Selfridge, Skye told Finn to shoot Ava with a plasma cannon he was wielding so that the fourteen year-old could absorb enough energy to destroy both Selfridge’s armor and the super-soldier chamber that would soon breed a new army of Singularity-enhanced super-soldiers. This desperate measure succeeded, ultimately annihilating Base Alpha as a result.

Following the excitement, Stephen O’Day called Finn via video chat, which inspired the twenty-one year-old to finally go through with the marriage proposal for his hockey-playing boyfriend. Overjoyed with love, O’Day accepted Finn’s proposal.

Three months later, Finn now lived together with O’Day at the latter’s Liberty Village condo, leaving his old SafeHaven apartment to Skye and Ava. At that time, they were still continuing to plan for the wedding, with Finn having to do most of it due to O’Day’s Toronto Marlies being in the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs.

—

**Notes From The Creator**

For this story, I needed a co-protagonist that would be able to stand on his own ground next to a literal superhuman in Skye, hence why Finn is the way he is. I envisioned him as a character who acts as sort of a foil to the more headstrong Skye, a sort-of audience surrogate character for readers to view the story through.

It should be noted that despite just being a relatively non-powered character who is unexpectedly throwing himself into this foreign situation, we see hints of the inner strength and courage embedded inside Finn. For instance, in S1E1 (“Skye”), we see him sticking up for his friend, even when physically outmatched by thugs. However, we see that he has his limits, like in S1E2 (“Miracle Monday”), where he repeatedly expresses concern for some of Skye’s plans.

As we see, Finn has two complex relationships that he’s a central figure of: His romantic relationship with hockey player Stephen O’Day (which will get referenced and ultimately be paid off by the time the season ends) and his working partnership with Skye. I want to touch upon the latter, since that’s what forms the basis of the main plot, along with all the conspiracy stuff.

Finn is never afraid to take a stand or to stand with someone. It’s why he was so open to defy his foster parents’ stance toward his homosexuality, seeing it as their inability to be accepting of change. It’s also a big reason why he’s more than willing to help Skye, because he sees the opportunity to assist her in the investigation of her mystery past and super-empowerment as a chance to be of a great help and make a difference, on top of trying to show his gratitude for Skye saving his life.

The rapport between Finn and Skye also allows for me to write great back and forth banter between the two, again playing off the contrasting character personalities that the two exhibit.

Let’s discuss the initial plan for Finn’s character arc for the season before moving on to where he’s ended up by the end of Season One. Much like Skye, it’s heavily rooted in a quest for self-identity, though involving his current life outlook rather than the more fantastical journey that Skye’s story is about. At twenty one years of age, Finn is at a crossroads. He has no formal home, romantic feelings for someone that he wants to take to the next level, and now he’s thrust into an expansive conspiracy. Despite of all that working against him, you’ve read about how Finn has managed to keep up with Skye, even being responsible for helping her find her own humanity through his undying loyalty.

On the other side of all this is Finn’s relationship with the aforementioned Stephen O’Day, the sharpshooting star of the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. While Finn desires to be seen as someone that Skye can trust, he’s also trying his best to be a good boyfriend for Stephen. Unfortunately, working alongside Skye to stop SDI’s evil conspiracy often means that he doesn’t have time to be there for Stephen, who’s thankfully understandable of what he’s going through (even though he usually gets Skye’s name wrong whenever Finn tells him about her).

At the end of Season 1, Finn proposes to Stephen, who jubilantly accepts. His arc in Season 2 will largely focus on preparing for the wedding, while juggling this with his desire to help Skye and Ava face a new threat. While Finn has experience in facing down life-threatening situations, planning a wedding with the person you love the most is an entirely different experience altogether, as readers will find out in Season 2.


	3. Ava Lorenz

**Basic Information**

Full Name: Ava Karina Lorenz  
Other Names: N/A  
Date of Birth: April 13th, 2001  
Place of Birth: Toronto, Ontario  
Nationality: Portuguese-Canadian

**Physical Characteristics**

Hair Color: Brown  
Eye Color: Blue  
Height: 5’5  
Weight: 198 lbs

**Superhuman Abilities**

_Light Manipulation_ – Ava was born with the ability to control energy that her body perpetually produces. Said energy usually takes on the form of pink-hued light. These powers didn’t fully manifest themselves until shortly after Ava’s 11th birthday. Even then, she had no precise control of these abilities as they would trigger at random. It wasn’t until the incidents involving SDI Medical Research that Ava learned to control her powers, as she discovered that they would activate if people she cared for were in any danger.

Aside from being able to fire blasts of energy with her hands, Ava is able to will a concentrated force shield for a prolonged period of time to protect herself from attacks. Ava can absorb any incoming forms of energy to strengthen her own abilities or to create a massive explosion of light.

The only downside to Ava’s powers is that if she uses them too much, her body tires itself out, leaving Ava susceptible to being unable to generate energy until it can be fully recharged.

It is believed that Ava’s light powers can generate an output of approximately 1,200 lumens at its highest levels.

**Miscellanea**

Known accomplices: Skye (closest friend), Finch “Finn” Finwick (friend), Mr. Perreault (unofficial guardian)

Relatives: Katrina Lorenz (mother), Gabriel Lorenz (father), Kendra Lorenz (sister)

—

**Biography**

Born with the power to control perpetually-generated light from within her own body, Ava Lorenz lived a relatively normal life for most of her early years as this ability didn’t fully activate until her 11th birthday.

Coincidentally, things began to somewhat fall apart for Ava and her family the moment her unique abilities began to crop up. Ava’s older sister Kendra became more and more fascinated with the party life of a university student, which led to more drunken incidents. Meanwhile, her parents Gabriel and Katrina began squabbling over the smallest of things. Their discovery of Ava’s powers only seemed to make things worse, as she was thrown out of the house after accidentally destroying the family car with a random outburst of light energy.

On top of all this, Ava had an ill-advised brush with bulimia as her self-esteem seemed to hit rock bottom. She infamously punched out Alice Weiss, a student at her elementary school, after a bullying incident.

Ava found herself drifting from place-to-place around the city, before making her way to Kensington Market on a cold November evening. There, she found solace at Johnny Sam’s Cafe, an eatery run by Jean-Philippe Perreault, who soon took care of Ava as a surrogate father of sorts. For the first time in her entire life, Ava found happiness.

In late January 2016, Ava saw a homeless man near her makeshift home in a Kensington Market alleyway being abducted by soldiers contracted by SDI Medical Research for its Project: Unity “clinical” research trials. Despite her best efforts to save the man, Ava found herself captured by these soldiers, taken to a facility for further testing.

After being taken to the so-called “Hive Chamber” to be prepared for Project: Unity experimentation, Ava escaped and hid in a nearby office, where she would end up running into Skye and her friend Finch (Finn) Finwick, who were at SDI Medical Research on a mission to rescue Dr. Douglas Dover from Unity.

Ava’s powers literally exploded in a sea of pink light as she overloaded in an attempt to save both Skye and Finn before they could be converted into mindless Project: Unity drones by Roland Keisler, the head of this deranged social experiment. Unfortunately, that maneuver caused Ava to pass out, though it helped free Skye and Finn long enough so that they could stop Keisler's vile experiments.

Several days later, Ava met with Skye and Finn at Johnny Sam’s, whereupon she expressed her gratitude to them for rescuing her. She especially became close friends with Skye, who appreciated the sentiment.

This friendship culminated in Ava inviting Skye and Finn a couple of days later on a tour of her neighbourhood in Kensington Market. Unfortunately, things turned tragic when assassins hired by SDI staged a mass shooting while the three were enjoying lunch at a coffee stop. Ava used her powers to help Skye fight off the assassins, who tried to make an escape from Kensington.

Skye caught up with the last remaining assassin and began to viciously attack him in a savage assault that horrified Ava greatly. Fortunately, the teenaged superhuman managed to recover in time to prevent Skye from killing Finn under the mysterious berserker state she was in, using her light powers to temporarily stun Skye.

Feeling that her continued presence would be a danger to Ava and the people she cared for, Skye asked her young friend to stay behind while she and Finn continued their investigation to SDI’s Singularity conspiracy. As a memento of their newfound friendship, Skye gave Ava a photographic keepsake before leaving with Finn. In response, Ava decided to give the rabbit necklace she had gotten when her parents brought Skye (the name of the aforementioned rabbit, named well before Ava met her friend) home for the first time as a gift to her new friend.

A few days later, Ava got wind of Finn’s arrest due to his alleged role in Isaac Ellerton’s murder, deciding to do something to clear his name. She investigated the crime scene at Toronto General Health Centre, ultimately running into SDI’s Samuel Brandt and Repossession Task Force agents, learning that they were responsible for framing Finn in Isaac’s murder.

With the help of Toronto Police SSgt. Derick Eddison, Ava took down Brandt and brought him to custody in order to clear Finn’s name. She later managed to convince Finn to let her come along on his mission to rescue Skye from SDI’s clutches.

Upon reuniting with Skye after being saved from captivity at Base Alpha, Ava was more than happy to see her “big sister” once again. She later assisted Skye and Finn in stopping Project Singularity for good, with her light absorption fully manifesting itself to help shut down the super-soldier chambers that a newly-armored Gerald Selfridge planned to activate.

Three months after the events at Base Alpha, Ava decided to leave her Kensington Market neighbourhood to move in with Skye at Finn’s old SafeHaven apartment. For her 15th birthday, Ava received a special memento from Skye that had the words “Always Shine Brighter” etched into a glass starburst design.

—

**Notes From The Creator**

The funny thing about this character was that Ava originally didn’t show up in my initial concept notes for Singularity. She became a late addition right as I began work on Episode 3 (“Missing Persons Case”), and even then, she didn’t exactly have the traits that she currently has right now.

I originally meant for Ava to be a one-off character that Skye and Finn rescue from a deadly SDI plot. But as I continued to work on Episode 3, I soon found that maybe having younger powered character to serve as someone that helps Skye find a bit more humanity wasn’t such a bad idea. Hence why we’ve got this version of Ava standing before us. The short written interlude entitled “Being Ava Lorenz” was also a late addition, meant to enlighten readers (pun intended) more on Ava’s backstory and what drives her character.

With adding a third (sort-of) protagonist comes the struggle of avoiding the pitfalls of having this new character take away time from the two main heroes we’ve followed from the start. That’s why I’ve been careful in making sure that Ava stands on equal ground with both Skye and Finn, and never above them.

Writing a teenaged character also presented another challenge in the sense of not doing a crappy job doing so. I didn’t want Ava to sound inauthentic, so I’ve tried my best to make sure her dialogue is “on point”, so to speak.

As I continued to write this story’s first season, I gradually realized that Ava was going to play an important role in the greater narrative — to the point that I considered her the third main character behind Skye and Finn. That’s why she becomes a key character for the final half of the season. That, not-so-coincidentally came around the point where writing scenes with Ava became one of my favorite scenes to write in the eight episodes of  _Singularity_ in the first season.

In contrast to the more (initially) world-weary Skye, Ava is someone who’s almost always optimistic — in spite of having a rough past few years. She has had not it easy, on the account of getting kicked out of her house for her accidental use of superhuman abilities, surviving a bulimia scare, and having to essentially live on the streets. Yet, despite that, Ava has this bright demeanor that has allowed her to be a light of hope for her friends — both old and new.

Season 2 finds Ava now living with Skye at SafeHaven, now accepting her as the big sister she never had with her own biological sister. This’ll lead to Ava discovering more about herself and just exactly what it means to have these powers she grew up with. Of course, having someone like Skye — a young woman who essentially grew up having no concrete past other than having powers that made her stronger, faster, and tougher than the average human — be her guardian will make that a somewhat pleasant experience. I say “somewhat” because the inevitable arrival of a new threat borne out of SDI’s evil conspiracy will prove to be the biggest challenge for both Ava and Skye. It’ll be a challenge that’ll either be their ultimate demise or something that will forge their friendship into something stronger.


	4. A Timeline of Events

**1989**

  * The SDI Genomics corporation publicly announces a new project dubbed “Singularity”, designed to breed artificial humans to help with the development of a cure for HIV/AIDS.



**1993**

  * March 8th: Gerald Selfridge, the founder and CEO of SDI begins his attempts to use Project Singularity for military applications rather than its original intent of lifesaving. 
  * July 6th: After getting wind of illegal activities relating to SDI’s Project, the Canadian government forces the company to shut it down. However, SDI still opts to continue the project in secret.



**1994**

  * March 30th: Finch Finwick is born in Newmarket, Ontario



**1995**

  * November 28th: SK-591, the artificial baby that would grow up to become Skye, is born in a facility somewhere near the Georgian Bay. The baby is meant to be the first of an entire army of genetically-enhanced humans, to be bred as future soldiers for use by the Canadian military for black ops missions.
  * December 8th: Dr. Elizabeth Emery escapes Base Alpha, taking SK-591 with her, hoping to save her from SDI’s future plans of molding the baby into one of its mind-controlled assassins. At nearby Killarney Provincial Park, Emery renames the baby “Skye”, promising a lifetime of infinite possibilities for her.



**1998**

  * Jonathan and Erin Finwick, Finn’s birth parents, are both killed in a drunk driving accident. As a result, Finn is left under the care of the Ellis family.



**2001**

  * April 13th: Ava Lorenz is born at Scarborough General Hospital.
  * June 2nd: Skye wakes up one morning to find that Dr. Emery has mysteriously vanished, without any trace left of her whereabouts. This begins a lengthy period of time in which Skye is forced to take care of herself.
  * September 16th: Skye’s superhuman abilities begin to manifest, though she has no precise control over them yet. This is quite clear when she accidentally takes down a tall redwood tree in a forest at Algonquin National Park after a moment of frustration.
  * November 2nd: With experiences of the day Dr. Emery disappeared gone due to her fractured memories, Skye apparently relives those events once again, waking up after a night of sleep somewhere near Balsam Creek and wondering where Dr. Emery went.



**2002**

  * April 10th: While hiding in an alleyway behind a restaurant in Stouffville, Skye collapses in a teary heap when she realizes that her mother, Dr. Emery, is not coming back.



**2005**

  * November 28th: Still forced to fend for herself, Skye tries her best to celebrate her 10th birthday while alone in Muskoka.



**2010**

  * February: Finn begins his friendship with Stephen O’Day, a skilled hockey player and his fellow student at Norman Bethune Collegiate Institute in Toronto.



**2011**

  * November 28th: Skye spends her 16th birthday in the small town of Timmins, Ontario. She makes a temporary residence there for several months, becoming a local urban legend due to her superhuman abilities.



**2012**

  * April 11th: Ava’s light powers apparently begin to activate. A few days later, she punches out Alice Weiss, a bully at her elementary school.
  * June 9th: Finn’s foster parents’ continued disapproval of his homosexual lifestyle finally forces him to walk out of their house in protest.
  * June 20th: With help from Stephen O’Day and Leo Stein, Finn is directed to the SafeHaven Homeless Shelter for at-risk youths, where he has been a resident ever since.
  * December 23rd: While in Timmins, Skye saves university graduate Olivia Smithson from a mugger. Grateful for the rescue, Smithson invites Skye for Christmas Eve dinner at a crisis shelter she volunteers at.
  * December 25th: Apparently suffering yet another memory lapse, Skye abruptly leaves Timmins, with no idea where she ended up at. She is, however, able to remember something Olivia Smithson told her: “Always have hope in what you can do”



**2014**

  * April 19th: Ava is thrown out of her home after she accidentally destroys the family car with her powers.
  * May 2nd: After years of searching, Gerald Selfridge manages to discover Skye’s then-present whereabouts. He initiates new plans to have her captured to complete Project Singularity successfully, recruiting ex-JTF-2 operative Samuel Brandt to lead a specialized task force whose primary mission is to apprehend Skye by any means necessary.
  * June 9th: A multi-vehicle accident at a bridge ends happily when Skye saves a driver before his truck falls over said bridge.
  * August 30th: Reports of a young woman with superhuman strength stopping a convenience store robbery in Gravenhurst are circulated. As it turns out, Skye was the person responsible for this, foiling a would-be robber before they could harm the convenience store owner and their family. However, Skye’s subsequent “fight” would end up partially destroying a restaurant near Lake Muskoka.
  * September 19th: Skye is involved in another fight where she hits a man so hard that he’s left permanently paralyzed.



**2015**

  * April 3rd: At a bar near Gatineau, Quebec, Skye apparently is involved in a fight with several patrons. The reasons for why the fight broke out remain unknown, but it is said one of the opponents Skye fought immediately ran off in fear after breaking one of his arms trying to hit her.
  * May 4th: To prevent anyone from recognizing her, Skye cuts her hair to an extremely short length, then dyeing it in a purple/pink mix. She also ends up completely changing the way she dresses, trading in her worn-out ensemble for a brown jacket and blue jeans to complete the new look.
  * June 22nd: Skye rescues people trapped in a burning building near Laval. She quickly leaves the scene after the fire is contained. A day later, she’s confused by a newspaper report on her exploits the previous day as her memory problems kick in once again.
  * July 1st: Deciding to take in Canada Day festivities in the small town of Alexandria, Skye suffers from a traumatizing flashback as she watches a lavish fireworks display with the Wellers, a family who found Skye on a rural route and invited her to stay with them. Unclear as to what triggered the reaction and why it happened, Skye abruptly leaves the Wellers behind.
  * August 6th: With the horrifying flashbacks to a past she barely knew getting even worse, Skye has an entire week of mostly sleepless nights. However, her superhuman endurance and metabolism manage to prevent any ill effects.
  * October 19th: Agent Brandt is given his orders by SDI head Gerald Selfridge to find and deal with Skye after she is tracked down near the Windsor/Detroit border. By the time Brandt’s strike team reach the area, Skye is long gone and nowhere to be seen.
  * November 5th: Ava seemingly makes a permanent residence at an alleyway in Kensington Market.



**2016**

  * January 16th: After an undisclosed time on the run, Skye finds herself on the streets of Toronto, first trying to outfox Brandt and his men (all of whom are dressed up as police officers), then running into Finch Finwick (known to his friends as “Finn”) after saving him and Leo Stein from homophobic gang members that were trying to kill the two. With no accommodation for the evening, Skye agrees reluctantly to stay in Finn’s apartment at the SafeHaven Homeless Shelter.
  * January 17th: With Finn’s help, Skye is able to rescue people trapped in a burning mountain of wrecked cars at Yonge-Dundas Square. The two later encounter Brandt along the PATH, fighting him off successfully (though Brandt’s men are able to wound Skye with unknown weaponry). Finn manages to convince Skye to let him be a part of her investigation of a conspiracy that seemingly has followed her into the city. 
    * Elsewhere, Brandt is admonished by Mr. Selfridge (communicating to Brandt under the guise of “The Chief”) for his strike team’s failure to rein in Skye. Selfridge tells Brandt to fix the “problem” that Skye represents before she exposes the conspiracy.
  * January 18th: A truly bizarre day begins when a disturbance at SafeHaven Homeless Shelter involving Kimmy Anderson, one of Finn’s neighbours, leads Skye to the Daily Harvest Food Bank. There, she encounters a mystery man with superpowers similar to her own. Skye soon comes to learn that the man is Isaac Ellerton, Kimmy’s fiance, who had been given his powers after meeting a doctor who promised him a cure for his respiratory illness. Skye would find Isaac once again at Psi MediLabs, where she’s able to convince him to trust her. In repayment, Isaac risked his own life to protect Skye and Finn from a vengeful Agent Brandt, ending up in hospital with life-threatening injuries.
  * January 21st: A string of homeless people across the city vanishing reveals a series of illegal clinical trials carried out by the SDI Medical Research firm. Skye learns that this is the same company that gave Isaac the serum which gave him his superhuman abilities. When meeting Isaac at the Toronto General Health Centre, Skye’s memory problems rear their ugly head once again, as she has no memory about the events at Psi MediLabs a few nights ago. Luckily, Finn manages to recap her on what happened that evening, despite being left confused by Skye’s memory shortage. Skye later befriends Ava Lorenz, one of the homeless people kidnapped by SDI, then shutting down the experiments for good.
  * January 26th: As a solution to help fix her scrambled memories, Finn suggests that Skye should keep a journal of her experiences so that she can help jog her mind when things become hazy once more. Later that day, hired assassins attempt to ambush Skye, Finn, and Ava while the three are out for a lunch at a local restaurant in Kensington Market, Ava’s home neighbourhood. The assassins’ plan to kill their targets ends up failing, on the account of Skye easily beating them all up. Things complicate even further when Skye loses control of herself after confronting one of the assassins. She nearly kills Finn, but is stopped when Ava uses her light powers to knock her unconscious. 
    * Another confrontation with Brandt and Toronto Police — who now want to arrest Skye for her alleged “crimes” — leads to Finn again almost dying. To save his life, Skye infuses Finn with some of her own blood.
  * January 27th: Agent Brandt murders Isaac Ellerton in his hospital bed, later planting phony evidence to implicate Finn as the one who committed the murder. To make sure that none of Finn’s friends are targeted by SDI’s evil schemes, Skye decides to leave SafeHaven, now wanting to take the fight to the genetics firm herself. 
    * Toronto Police falsely arrest Finn for Isaac’s death. Meanwhile, Skye finally meets face-to-face with Gerald Selfridge. Unfortunately, Selfridge uttered a set of code words to bring Skye under his control, ordering her to let herself be detained by his so-called “Genetic Extractors” so that she can be taken to Base Alpha.
  * January 28th: Selfridge divulges why he wanted Skye captured – it is all part of a plan to recreate the Project Singularity program to breed a new super-soldier army using Skye’s blood, planning to sell these super-soldiers off to the highest bidder. He inadvertently reveals Brandt framing Finn for Isaac’s murder and his subsequent plans for Finn, which is enough for Skye to break through the programming. Despite that, Skye is beaten down mercilessly by Selfridge’s Extractors, as she has been weakened by a suppressant she was exposed to back in Toronto’s Port Lands. 
    * Skye learns her true origins from Dr. Ilsa Antrovich, a geneticist who has her doubts about Selfridge’s plans. Antrovich also takes the time to inject Skye with Metrivex I, a formula developed after Project Singularity’s failure, designed to bring the human body to peak physical and mental condition. Back in Toronto, Finn is cleared of any involvement after Ava and SSgt. Derick Eddison of the Toronto Police expose Brandt as Isaac’s true killer. At Base Alpha, Skye learns that Antrovich’s serum has increased her powers to greater levels.
  * January 29th: Finn and Ava’s attempted rescue of Skye at SDI Base Alpha does not go as planned when they’re captured by security forces. Thankfully, they’re saved by Skye (who was disguised as a SDI security guard), who later leads the two to both the Birthing Chamber — where she was created in 1995 — and the Armory. Continually frustrated by Skye’s continued successes against his plans, Selfridge unleashes Super-Soldier Omega, a hulking monster armed with yttrium/iridium-laced weaponry (the only material strong enough to pierce Skye’s indestructible skin). Skye, Finn, and Ava are able to defeat Omega, but at a terrible cost when Skye is impaled with a bifurcated blade from the giant. Moments later, Finn and Ava become distraught when it seems that Skye died from her fatal injuries. 
    * At Toronto Police Headquarters, Chief MacDonald is forced to deal with a breakout of criminals caused by Brandt, who used it as a means to escape police custody. He’s later extracted by employees working for TriDyne Technologies, who are ordered to take him to the company’s world headquarters in New York.
    * As it turns out, Skye isn’t dead. She’s simply fallen into a coma while her healing abilities worked to keep her alive. In her coma, Skye confronts not only a bizarre doppleganger, but also a vision of Dr. Elizabeth Emery, who inspires her to be the best of herself. She recovers from her near-fatal wound, saving Finn and Ava from the Genetic Extractors. The three are later confronted by a newly-armoured Gerald Selfridge, who activates his super-soldier pods. Ava absorbs a greater amount of energy than she’s used to, destroying the super-soldier chamber and Selfridge. When Base Alpha’s self-destruct sequence initiates, Skye, Finn, and Ava escape in the nick of time. The good news continues to pour in as Finn proposes to Stephen O’Day, who happily accepts.
  * April 12th: Jacqueline Quincannon, the founder of TriDyne Technologies — now accompanied by Brandt — holds a meeting with the Board of Directors, revealing that a group she’s affiliated with known as “The Conglomerate” are biding their time to deal with Skye and possibly restart Project Singularity.
  * April 15th: Now living in Finn’s SafeHaven apartment, Skye and Ava prepare to go to Nathan Phillips Square for a skate with Finn and Stephen O’Day. Before that, Skye thanks Ava (and Finn) for helping her discover her humanity, giving the fourteen year-old a keepsake bearing the words “Always Shine Brighter”.




	5. Creating a Web Novel

As many of you may know, I have been mainly using this blog to write  _[Singularity](https://writequillwrite.wordpress.com/singularity/), _ an eight-part miniseries centering on a young woman imbued with superpowers who sets out to expose a deadly conspiracy that has her in its crosshairs along with two friends she meets along the way. It’s currently on its third episode with Episode IV making its way soon ( **EDITOR’S NOTE:** Season One concluded on January 21st, 2017, and a new season will be arriving soon.). But, let’s step aside from that miniseries for a moment and just look upon what exactly motivated me to create all this, because there is that one question that lingers:

“Why Skye?”

That question sometimes crosses my mind, especially when I’m writing this story. It’s something that drives me personally when writing the miniseries. But, to truly get a sense of where it all began, let’s flashback to the beginning of the year.

Eight months ago, enamored with finally getting a PlayStation 4, I started playing WWE 2K16 and making a bunch of wrestlers, as I typically do. Little did I know that one of my creations would end up kickstarting a bold new direction in terms of creativity.

Skye — or as she was known at the time of creation in WWE 2K16, “Ramona Skye” — originally started off as just a [nondescript created wrestler](https://twitter.com/MarcQuill/status/683517181032853505) whose distinctive feature was her purple/pink dyed hair. She served no purpose other than to just be a part of some strange form of catharsis. Then, for some reason or another, I decided to evolve the concept into something bigger. [This tweet](https://twitter.com/MarcQuill/status/687072878077018112) could very well be when the idea became that something bigger. Then came the planning where Finn was eventually integrated, and elements like my main heroine’s superpowers got refined, as did the mythology surrounding her world.

At first, I didn’t know why I dropped the “Ramona” part of Skye’s name, but it really became clear that I just felt having the name of my future novel’s lead character being singularly just Skye worked a lot better for what I was going to tell. I have an in-story reason for why she has that name, which you found out about in Episode 6, “Unraveling”. The decision to create an entire story element on why Skye has her name was one meant to add more depth to her character — even right down to the very reason for her name.

And like any good idea, Skye was stuck in my mind. From literally just a generic-looking wrestler designed for catharsis, into a revolutionary (at least in my view) character who seemingly evolved as I began creating the story of  _Singularity._ It was a magical experience that still lingers and one I wouldn’t trade for anything else.

One year later, I’ve finished the first “season” of the novel, with plans to do at least one more series of stories. Quite a fair bit has changed since the initial development of this novel. For one thing, my original vision has deviated slightly with each passing chapter. What I envisioned as a dark conspiracy adventure soon transformed into one that emphasized the meaning of reclaiming your identity and finding hope in a perilous world.

Skye’s own search for her identity might’ve been wrapped around in a story of superpowers and a deadly conspiracy, but when it got time to writing her origins, I found that there was something inherently human about her struggles. As Skye finds out through Dr.Elizabeth Emery, her creator, it’s not the superhuman strength and endurance that makes her who she is; it’s her compassion and capacity to show empathy towards others that helps define her. Fleshing out Skye’s character was one of my favorite parts of writing the first season, as it allowed for an opportunity to create a heroine that people could not only root for, but also identify with on a certain level.

It’s one thing to create a character as an invincible superhero who shrugs off every threat to them, but it’s an entirely different orbit to create a character who’s fully-realized and feels like an actual person, even in a world of superhuman abilities and conspiracies.That was the main reason why I decided to go that route with the backstory involving Dr. Emery and the like. I do hope that I’ve accomplished the goal of creating a compelling hero with how I approached writing Skye in this story.

I want to shift gears now and talk about Skye’s co-protagonists, Finn Finwick and Ava Lorenz, two characters that have helped define what I liked about writing this story. The important thing with writing both Finn and Ava was to ensure that the two didn’t end up being simply just sidekicks who take a backseat while Skye did her thing.

The idea for Finn was to create a more down-to-earth foil to the perilous threats that followed Skye into the city of Toronto. Finn has no superpowers whatsoever, but here he is trying his damndest to help someone he’s only known for an incredibly short time expose a conspiracy that’s targeted her. As the story progresses, it becomes really clear that Skye values Finn as her friend after initially being hesitant to have him around helping her stop SDI’s plans. Another important aspect I decided upon in developing Finn was his same-sex relationship with Stephen O’Day, a hockey player for the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. Writing a gay couple proved to be a good challenge for me in approaching it as a heterosexual writer. I feel I did my best in conveying Finn’s love for Stephen without falling into any traps that would otherwise make them seem feel inauthentic. With that in mind, I invite suggestions on how I can improve upon writing them, especially since their wedding will form part of Season 2’s plot.

Originally, Ava wasn’t a character of great importance, only meant to be a one-off character that would show up in Episode 3 (“Missing Persons Case”) and never be heard from again. Sure enough, I realized that wouldn’t be such a good idea, so her role in the story increased. Making her a superpowered character was a decision I made in order to allow for dynamics between Ava and Skye to work even better. Ava is someone who’s always desired to be loved after a youth where she was bullied and even kicked out of her own home for an unfortunate mishap. This yearning for appreciation is what leads Ava to identify and befriend Skye like she has.

You could say that Ava projects a lot of herself and what she thinks she’s capable of onto Skye’s own strengths. That being said, I think it’s not just a simple matter of hero worship, but a matter of a want of a familial bond of sorts for Ava in terms of her relationship with Skye. She never did get along with her own actual biological sister, who never really cared about Ava and how she felt, so actively seeking Skye’s friendship and love is really a no-brainer for Ava. We got a taste of that in the latter half of the season, but I feel that the bond the two share will become a bigger deal storywise in Season 2. Writing Ava was also something I really enjoyed doing. She’s a wonderfully complex character who really endeared herself as I kept writing (though that could be said for everyone in the main trio).

I realize that writing and getting the word out about this novel is an uphill battle. For one thing, I’m just a small fish in a big pond of many, so the novel is just essentially a blip on a very big radar. Plus, there’s the fact that I’m doing all of this by myself, which means I’m basically marketing this on my own. And there’s also the fact that I’m a crap artist, which pretty much means I can’t get a good visual identity down for my novel outside of my WWE 2K16 screencaps featuring Skye, Finn, and Ava.

Writing  _Singularity_ has been a fulfilling and rewarding personal experience for me as an author, one that I will hopefully one day translate into something that I write beyond just a project I do for fun. These characters have resonated with me in a way that no other written story has done for me, and it’s something that makes me want to continue writing this for as long as I can.


	6. Character Compendium

_**This section contains SPOILERS for “Singularity” and “Blue Skye Rising” #1. If you have not kept up with the story, it is advised you do so before reading the Compendium.** _

**_Samuel Brandt – Former SDI Repossession Task Force leader_ **

**First Appearance:** Singularity #1 “Skye”

A former Joint Task Force 2 soldier-turned-“Troubleshooter” for SDI Genomics. In actuality, Brandt is the head of its Repossession Task Force, a specialized paramilitary unit whose purpose is to apprehend any “rogue experiments” that are property of SDI. Relentless and ruthless to the core, Brandt is a consistent threat to Skye, Finn, and Ava. Despite that, the three heroes have repeatedly fended him off on more than one occasion.

After SDI’s fall, Brandt has been brought under the employ of Jackie Quincannon and TriDyne Technologies, serving as her personal bodyguard.

—

_**Renata Brooks — Ex-Toronto Police Constable, Nazi Terrorist** _

**First Appearance:** Credibility Gap (one-shot)

A former Toronto Police officer who became increasingly angered by Skye Emery’s heroics, Renata Brooks chose to turn to a life of crime as a way of getting back at a person she thought was undeserving of the adoration of an entire city.

Brooks was hired by Oscar Hellinger and the Canadian Freedom Militia to impersonate Skye as part of a larger plan to discredit the newly-turned superhero by falsely claiming that she supported the Militia’s white nationalist cause. As a result, she was also given an off-brand version of a SDI-created serum meant to simulate almost all of Skye’s superpowers. This got the attention of the real Skye Emery, who ended up confronting Brooks at a standoff between Militia forces and counter-protestors who rejected the terror group’s hateful messages in late April 2016. Brooks was defeated by Skye after a lengthy battle. She was then later arrested and subsequently removed from the Toronto Police by Chief MacDonald due to “gross criminal misconduct”.

—

_**Dr. Douglas Dover — Medical Researcher** _

**First Appearance:** Singularity #3 “Missing Persons Case”

Dr. Dover formerly worked for Health Canada as an inspector, discovering an illegal genetic experimentation ring run by Roland Keisler in St. John’s, Newfoundland in 2008. Several years later, Dover left Health Canada and opened up a medical research practice in Toronto. He would become the target of a vengeful Keisler in 2016, kidnapped by him as part of something dubbed Project: Unity, a supposed rehabilitation program for homeless persons. Dover was rescued by Skye and Finn when the two were on the trail of Unity’s connections to SDI and Project Singularity.

Skye later went to seek advice from Dr. Dover about the investigations he conducted on SDI, getting a USB drive containing all his research on the company. Unfortunately, Dr. Dover was assassinated by a killer working for SDI shortly after.

—

**_Dr. Elizabeth Emery – Former SDI Scientist and Co-Founder of Project Singularity; Skye’s creator/mother_ **

**First Appearance:** Singularity #6 “Unraveling”

A geneticist who formerly served as the head of SDI’s Project Singularity artificial superhuman creation program. Originally intending for her program to serve as a way to help cure life-threatening diseases, Dr. Emery abandoned the project when SDI CEO Gerald Selfridge expressed his desire to turn the Project’s creations into future super-soldiers. Emery liberated the project’s only creation — an infant designated Subject SK-591 — in a daring escape from SDI’s Base Alpha in December 1995.

She took care of the infant (eventually renaming her “Skye”, in reference to her own love for gazing at the night sky) through its early years until she mysteriously vanished in 2001. Despite her abrupt disappearance, Dr. Emery’s nurturing influence has left an indelible mark on Skye, who grew up as a compassionate and heroic young woman who uses her superhuman abilities to help others in need as a result of Emery’s love and care. This has also inspired Skye to take on the Emery surname for herself in tribute to her surrogate mother.

Dr. Emery’s current whereabouts are unknown at this time.

—

_**Skye Emery – Project Singularity’s only success, nomadic superhero** _

**First Appearance:** Singularity #1 “Skye”

_See Complete Guide[file on Skye Emery](https://writequillwrite.wordpress.com/2016/03/06/the-complete-guide-to-singularity-skye-emery/) for detailed information._

—

**_Finch “Finn” Finwick – Skye Emery’s trusted ally_ **

**First Appearance:** Singularity #1 “Skye”

_See Complete Guide[file on Finch Finwick](https://writequillwrite.wordpress.com/2016/04/03/the-complete-guide-to-singularity-finch-finn-finwick/) for detailed information._

—

_**Professor Roland Keisler – SDI Scientist and Progenitor of Project: Unity** _

**First Appearance:** Singularity #3 “Missing Persons Case”

A completely amoral scientist working for SDI, with a specific fascination for attempting to “rehabilitate” homeless people by giving them superhuman abilities. In 2008, one such operation that Keisler was carrying out was shut down by Health Canada after investigations led by Douglas Dover exposed it to the public. After this public disgrace, Keisler spent years in the underground trying to restart his ambitions.

In 2015, he started work with Project: Unity, a similar program utilizing an old abandoned serum devised by SDI to give temporary superhuman abilities to people who took it. He administered this serum to Isaac Ellerton as a means to purportedly cure his respiratory illness. In January 2016, Keisler resurfaced when he began to abduct homeless people living on the streets of Toronto, which included fourteen year-old Ava Lorenz among them.

Skye and Finn encountered Keisler while on the trail of the abducted homeless people and their connection to the Singularity conspiracy. Keisler unleashed a superpowered subject dubbed “Patient A-001” on the two heroes, but Skye & Finn were able to stop the professor’s plans with Ava’s help. He was last seen being extracted from the SDI Medical Research facility by Brandt, on orders from his superiors.

—

**_Zaida Khan – Skye Emery’s Long-lost Friend_ **

**First Appearance:** “Credibility Gap” (one-shot)

A Muslim university student whose family Skye briefly stayed with in 2009. Skye fell in love with Zaida over the few months she stayed with her family, until she mysteriously vanished one day.

Several years later, Skye encountered Zaida — who was now studying at Toronto’s Ryerson University — on one of her crime sweeps of the neighbourhood. Her memory problems now fixed since the last time she was with Zaida, Skye quickly remembered every detail about her stay with the twenty-one year-old’s family back in 2009.

After defeating the neo-Nazi Canadian Freedom Militia terror group, Skye met with Zaida again, accepting both an offer for a date over coffee and an affectionate kiss on the cheek from her long-lost friend.

—

_**Ava Lorenz – Skye Emery’s adopted younger sister, light-controlling superhuman** _

**First Appearance:** Singularity #3 “Missing Persons Case”

_See Complete Guide[file on Ava Lorenz](https://writequillwrite.wordpress.com/2016/09/05/the-complete-guide-to-singularity-ava-lorenz/) for detailed information._

—

_**Alexandra MacDonald – Toronto Police Chief** _

**First Appearance:** Singularity #3 “Missing Persons Case”

Serving as Chief of the Toronto Police since 2010, Alexandra MacDonald has strived to make sure the city she serves is safe from all crime that would threaten it.

Chief MacDonald conducted an ongoing investigation on Skye Emery’s activities since her arrival in mid-January. While she did issue a citywide arrest warrant for the twenty year-old superhuman for a series of incidents involving her and SDI-owned facilities, Chief MacDonald ended up dropping the warrant after she discovered SDI’s duplicity in their attempts to frame Skye as a criminal.

She continues to proudly serve as Chief of Police to this day.

—

**_Gerald Selfridge – SDI Genomics CEO & Project Singularity Co-Founder_ **

**First Appearance:** Singularity #1 “Skye” (as “The Chief”); Singularity #3 “Miracle Monday”

The ruthless and business-minded CEO and Founder of SDI Genomics, North America’s largest genetic and medical firm. In 1995, Selfridge attempted to hijack Project Singularity from Dr. Elizabeth Emery in an attempt to turn it into a project designed to manufacture superpowered soldiers.

First operating under the guise of “The Chief” after learning of Skye’s existence and tracking her down to Toronto, Selfridge eventually got himself directly involved after the Repossession Task Force’s repeated failures. Despite briefly bringing Skye under his control, Selfridge was ultimately defeated when the young superhuman’s determination overpowered her programming, allowing for Skye to aid Ava and Finn in stopping the SDI CEO. He perished in the resulting destruction of SDI Base Alpha.

—

**_Jacqueline “Jackie” Quincannon – TriDyne Technologies CEO_ **

**First Appearance:** Singularity #8 “Undaunted”

Ambitious and calculating, Jackie Quincannon has always been used to being handed down everything by her parents John and Janine Quincannon, the proud co-founders of the TriDyne Technologies firm.

In 1990, John Quincannon passed away due to heart complications, leaving the ownership of TriDyne to be inherited to twenty-five year-old Jackie, who was the last surviving member of the immediate Quincannon family.

Through her years of guidance, TriDyne has grown exponentially as a leading technological enterprise and supplier for the United States military.

In secret, Jackie is also one of the heads of industry and state that have become a part of a shadow group known only as “The Conglomerate”. Time will tell if this faction’s intentions for Skye and her friends will bode well for their future.

—

**_Scratch – Hired Mercenary/Private Military Contractor_ **

**First Appearance:** Blue Skye Rising #1 “Politics for Fun & Profit”

A mercenary/crook who used to work for a private military contractor, the man only known to most as “Scratch” carried out an attempted theft of bootlegged weapons and counterfeit money along with his partner-in-crime, “Dubs”. The two were stopped in their tracks when their planned escape ripped through the streets of Toronto, and right into the hands of Skye Emery, who defeated Scratch and Dubs before leaving them in police custody.

Scratch would not remain in jail for long as a mysterious benefactor soon helped he and Dubs escape the Toronto Police headquarters for a new plan to be carried out.

_**Leo Stein – Finn’s best friend** _

**First Appearance:** Singularity #1 “Skye”

One of Finn’s closest friends since elementary school. Leo is someone Finn has trusted for all his life. He’s helped support Finn through many major events in his life, especially when Finn decided to move out of his foster parent’s home.

Leo was present with Finn when he first encountered Skye in January 2016, as he was being protected by his friend from a gang of homophobic thugs. After staying mostly under the radar since then, Leo has recently offered his expertise on tailoring and technology to provide assistance to Skye and Ava while Finn is on the road with boyfriend Stephen O’Day.

—

**O’Ryan Telecom Group – Phone/Media firm**

**First Appearance:** Singularity #1 “Skye” (City-One News); “Being Ava Lorenz” (O’Ryan Telecom)

A renowned telecom company in Canada that also owns the O’Ryan Media Group, a multimedia corporation whose assets also includes City-One News, Toronto’s very own 24-hour news channel.

—

_**SDI Genomics – Pharmaceutical/Genetics corporation** _

**First Appearance:** Singularity #2 “Miracle Monday”

One of Canada’s most prolific pharmaceuticals and genetics companies. SDI grew into prominence in the 1980s when the company was at the forefront of developing medical breakthroughs to help save lives.

Their legacy is forever linked to an artificial human creation project designed to breed so-called “perfect” humans with extraordinary healing abilities to help cure diseases. Unfortunately, under the direction of CEO Gerald Selfridge, the program — known as Project Singularity — was realigned into one meant to build super-soldiers under the command of a single leader in order to fight conflicts globally. The Canadian government ordered for a complete shutdown of the project once it learned the illegal operations being conducted by SDI.

Despite the shutdown order, SDI was able to create at least one super-soldier, Subject SK-591. This infant was freed from its Base Alpha headquarters in early December 1995 by Dr. Emery, who gave the baby a new name and a new purpose. Despite this setback, SDI continued to operate as a benevolent pharmaceutical company for many years, while maintaining black ops units to track down the Subject — who was now rechristened as “Skye” by Dr. Emery.

It all came to a head in 2016, when SDI’s Repossession Task Force tracked Skye down to Toronto, setting off a series of incidents that would eventually lead to the company’s downfall. Thanks to its increasingly public actions taken to capture Skye for the continuation of the Project, SDI stocks continued to plummet, culminating in the Canadian government once again investigating the company following the destruction of its Base Alpha headquarters.

All SDI assets were bought out by TriDyne Technologies following the American-based tech company’s acquisition of the once-great giant of Canadian pharmaceutics in May 2016.

—

_**Stephen O’Day  – Hockey player; Finn’s fiancée** _

**First Appearance:** Singularity #1 “Skye” (mentioned); Singularity #7 “Unbreakable” (first on-page appearance)

Plays for the Toronto Marlies and notable for being the first openly-gay professional hockey player in history. Stephen is Finn’s boyfriend, who he’s known since high school at Norman Bethune Collegiate Institute. He is someone who believes that he can be the best of who he is on and off the ice.

Immediately after Finn helped Skye and Ava defeat SDI and Project Singularity, he proposed to Stephen, who happily accepted.


End file.
